At last, it’s March and the growing season is upon us. I don’t know about you but it feels like this winter has been going on for at least six months and shows little sign of abating! Doug and I have been so cold in our draughty rental house that he kindly bought us several pairs of thermals each to wear under our clothes. I don’t know why we didn’t invest in them years ago! I am a convert.

Now that that spring is almost here, and hopefully slightly warmer weather may be around the corner, Doug is busy growing his seedlings. As you’d expect, there’s barely a window sill free in the house. The seedlings are mostly salad leaves, although he does plan to plant some tomatoes in the coming weeks. We spent the other weekend putting up the greenhouse which used to be in the garden in our old house in Essex at the allotment. Not the most fun thing you can do when it’s zero degrees, granted, but it had to be done. It has been sitting piled up in the garden for the past 16 months, so it was good finally to get it up and being used.

I volunteered to help out after Doug was let down by a flaky man with a van he’d booked to deliver it to the allotment and help erect it. The guy backed out by texting him at 5.30am on the morning he was supposed to come, saying he couldn’t make it. Turns out he was going skiiing instead! Luckily, in the end, Doug managed to find another chap who was more reliable to deliver it to the site. And, thanks to our efforts in the freezing cold, it’s all up now. There’s just one pane of glass in the roof that needed replacing as it got accidentally smashed when we moved in 2011 and he picked that up at the weekend. You can watch a quick time lapse video here of us putting it up…

Doug has just left his seedlings up at the allotment, in the greenhouse, for the first time today. Now we’re just hoping it will get some sun…Fingers crossed!

Before I go, here is a link to the spot I did most recently on the Chrissie B Show which I forgot to put up before. It’s a bit late for Boxing Day now, but perhaps early in time for next year! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ay_fFGHASc

4 Responses to The allotment takes shape

Not that I know much about allotments but that space looks huge! Is it? Looks like you’ll grow plenty there and in the greenhouse. I know what you mean about all the seedlings on the windowsills. Looks a bit like that here as well! All the best on the allotment.

Hi Sophie – thanks for your kind words. Have been enjoying reading your blog btw 🙂 It’s a half allotment, so according to the ‘head gardener’ it’s about 23 feet x 50 feet, but like you say it has plenty of space! Good luck with your growing ventures this year.

Looking good 🙂
Last weekend we spent lots of time sorting our little plot out too, even put my mini green house up. 🙂 i’ve got lots of seedlings dotted about the house and even more now i’ve had to bring in some from the green house as temp has dropped so much.
fingers crossed temperatures start going up soon 🙂